lighting times?

[Jonnywhoop!]

i have a 40 gallon tank, heavily planted on the right side, but theres hairgrass as the foreground on the left side.

how long should i keep my lighting on?

i get off of school usually around 2 or 3, would it be bad to turn on myy lights then, or should i start like right in the morning when i wake up

would it be necessarily "bad" if i turned it on late at night to check up on my fish etc etc, just to randomly turn it on?

just some common information on lighting times is what im asking for.

[lauraleellbp]

Are you running CO2 on this tank? How many watts is your lighting, and what kind of fixture?

If you've got CO2 then I'd probably recommend about 8 hours a day total. With no CO2 you'll probably need less light or else you'll end up with tons of algae. This recommendation would be dramatically affected by your total wattage, however.

Some ppl think that a break in the middle of a photoperiod helps keep algae undercontrol. I've never tried it personally, so IDK about that, but it shouldn't do any harm to the fish or plants if you want to try that.

I personally use timers on all my planted tanks. Cheap Christmas light timers work pretty well, or you can buy light strip timers like the ones Coralife makes.

[Naja002]

It really doesn't matter whether you start their day at 8am or 8pm. Its more about the energy (light) going into the tank. However, it does matter how much light the tank gets while the lighting is off. In other words, If the room is windowless and black--then it shouldn't matter at all. If the tank sits in front of a window and gets light all day from the sun--then its definitely going to matter. So, it really just depends upon the specific setup. Just use common sense and let the tank tell you.....


As far as turning on the light during the dark period--again, it depends on what you are talking about. I don't know how quickly plants shift back and forth from photosynthesis, so I can't really offer you any "scientific" facts. But if you want to turn the lights on for 5 mins--it shouldn't be a problem. However, if you want to turn them on for 5 hours--well, you need to add that to your overall daily photoperiod. Again, just use common sense.....

HTH